Day 27: Library

[not_rly_fai]

Libraries, he'd found, were rarely as dull as people made them out to be.  Though he felt no magic in these tomes, they were still full of useful information.  Maybe some of them could tell him a little bit more about this world he'd landed himself in.

For that matter, why hadn't he run into any of the others yet?  They'd all been fairly close

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[undesirableone]

Harry entered the library with a determined expression. The conversation on the bulletin board left him feeling confused but prepared. He had contacted this 'Renji' person and might be working with the man's group sometime in the future. He was still hoping all this 'night' stuff was complete rubbish, but he knew better to discount it completely. There was just one thing to do now.

If he really was written about in a book then he wanted to know what exactly people knew about him. One of the people had mentioned Cho, and just the thought that people only had to read a book to find out some of the most embarrassing moments in Harry's life mortified him.

It felt a little weird to be looking for his own name in a title of a book. He knew (thanks to Hermione) that he was in a couple of Wizarding recent history books, but he had never bothered to read them, and there was a whole chapter dedicated about him in The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore but the thought of that book made his stomach clench. This, however, this was different. He

[totallytheseme]

Normally (and it was always disconcerting when he realized that the shifts in this place were becoming normal) when he was tired during the day, Hikaru would've just chosen a couch to pass out on, but there were so many new "patients" these days that the Sun Room tended to get kind of noisy. So he opted for the second choice--the library. Libraries were quiet. Maybe he could find a remote aisle and lie down on the floor.

That seemed really appealing right now, actually. Maybe he'd to that.

The Host wasn't exactly paying attention to where he was going, and ended up bumping into a guy about his height with unruly black hair, glasses...and an extremely famous scar.

"...You've got to be kidding." First anime and video game characters (and members of the Shinsengumi), now this?!

[truthisntsimple]

[[From here]]

When Severus entered the library, he felt his stomach drop and his heart clench in both anger and fear. What in Slytherin's name was Lily's boy doing in this wretched place. He couldn't help what came next, too many years having ingrained a certain set of responses to Potter's presence.

"POTTER!" He stalked over to the boy, looming as best he could in his ridiculous uniform.

[undesirableone]

Harry turned to look at the person who had bumped into him. He opened his mouth to respond to the other teen. He was going to shrug it away and question him about the books, as there was no other reason for him to respond that way when an all too familiar voice made his freeze.

He turned to the visage of the professor that had taught him for so many years. Anger flooded him. Snape couldn't really be there. That was impossible.

"Who are you?!" he demanded, close to yelling. His hand twitched to reach his wand but it didn't move. He reminded himself that it wasn't there, but hopefully the movement would just look like he thought better of it because of the nurses around.

[totallytheseme]

......Oh crap. If that was who Hikaru thought it was, the situation was deteriorating very, very quickly. He came from 2006, so the seventh book hadn't been released yet, but he remembered very clearly that Snape killed Dumbledore.

"Harry Potter's" question caught him off-guard. So...it wasn't Snape, then?

And what the hell was going on?

[truthisntsimple]

Severus let anger take front in his mixture of emotion. It was much better than fear that in this place he may not be able to keep up his side by protecting Lily's son.

In a cold and furious voice he addresses Potter, completely disregarding the other boy.

"I have been your professor for five years, over which time you have repeatedly disregarded all the rules of Hogwarts and invaded my privacy and you dare to question me? 20 points from Gryffindor! Now what are you doing here you impudent whelp!?"

He couldn't think about how silly it was to be taking points when he was not even sure where they were. But the situation had just gotten a lot more stressful, more so than he could fully comprehend at this point.

[undesirableone]

"Don't-" Harry started, green eyes furious. "You cannot be Severus Snape, not even if this is some other kind of world. No spell can bring back the dead."

The imposter's attempt on acting like the professor turned Headmaster only made Harry see more red. He couldn't believe that this person, whoever they were, would honestly think that bringing up the house points would fool Harry. It made him even angrier because it was said so much like Snape had said it so many times before.

[totallytheseme]

In any other situation, Hikaru would've laughed his head off, and then pointed out to Snape that this was not, in fact, Hogwarts, and that he couldn't very well go around taking points off of people at random.

But angry Snape was scary. He had a feeling that if he spoke up at all, he might die.

Then Harry started to go on about Snape being dead, which made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Dumbledore was dead. Snape wasn't.

...As far as he knew, anyway.

Well, he wasn't going to stick around and find out.

"I'll just...be going now. You two have fun."

[ooc: Hikaru goes zoom!]

[truthisntsimple]

Severus glared at the boy leaving then swung his gaze back to Potter. The child's statement was disconcerting to say the least. Disconcerting in the way that Rabastan's comments about Dumbledore had been disconcerting.

He sputtered, for a second unable to respond. "I am not dead! Obviously, and you - " He leaned down to get into Harry's face then stopped, noticing something he had not before. It was times like these that he wished it was safe enough to bring his wand out with him during the day. In a quiet voice, almost to himself, Severus continued. "You can't be Potter, you're older than he is."

Glare intensifying he stood tall and took a step back. "You are not Potter! Potter is an annoying 5th year. You, whoever you are, are at least a 7th year or older. Who are you and what are you doing here!"

Sadly, Severus was too flustered and angry to notice how the two of them had just switched positions, so to speak.

[undesirableone]

When he was younger Snape leaning closer would have been enough to cause Harry to shut up. He had always been afraid of the losing points for his house (at least until sixth year, when his ignorant indignation over Snape's new post as the DADA professor had spurred him to bouts of foolish cheekiness), but they weren't at Hogwarts and Snape was dead. Harry was too angry to care about the look that was given him and he didn't shrink away when the older wizard leaned closer. He stared back at Snape, sparing no glance for Hikaru.

"I am Harry Potter!" he yelled at the Snape impostor, stepping closer as the man stepped back. "I dropped out seventh year to do what Dumbledore asked me to do and find a way to kill Voldemort. You can't be Snape. I saw him die. Voldemort killed him. If you think this is some kind of joke it's not funny."

Snape had given up so much and risked so much to help Dumbledore and protect Harry. He couldn't allow someone to walk around wearing his face.

[truthisntsimple]

Potter calling him a joke was the last straw. All the waiting and watching and hoping for some miracle while he was stuck here in this place away from Hogwarts, away from Dumbledore, and Lily's child, and the war; all this time unable to help, and this Potter look-alike with Lily's beautiful eyes had just called him a joke.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, his Slytherin side that had kept him alive for so long was screaming at him to back down and think rationally. But this time, it wasn't doing any good.

"You think I'm a joke? A JOKE!? One minute I am trying to keep Bellatrix Lestrange from turning me in as a traitor to the dark lord, sealing my own doom in the process and the next moment I wake up here. And for Merlin knows how long I have been trying to figure out how to warn Dumbledore of what I have done, hoping that he has the right potions for his hand, and for some unknown reason hoping your - excuse me - Harry Potter's sorry Gryffindor self is still alive, and you dare to come in here and call me a joke

[undesirableone]

Harry still wasn't going to buy this trick. This impostor was doing a good job, he even knew what Snape had known about Dumbledore's hand. He still refused to shrink away or let this... person, whoever he was, get the better of him.

"If you're really Severus Snape..." Harry began, thinking wildly. The trick was supposed to be to ask a question that only the real person would know, at least that's what the Order had done. He got a slightly victorious expression, thinking that he had come up with a question that was sure to trick a fake. "Then tell me what the first potion is we worked on in my Remedial Potions class." It was trick question, of course, because Snape hadn't been teaching him potions at all those times. If this was the real Snape, bringing up the place where Harry had spotted his 'worst memory' would probably not be the best idea, but the real Snape had given Harry far many more memories than just that one

[truthisntsimple]

Severus paused. If this was the real Harry, then he would know that Severus had been teaching him Occlumency instead of Remedial Potions. But if this was an imposter... Forget it. At this point it didn't matter. So he did a very Gryffindorish move and actually answered the question honestly.

"I never taught you Remedial Potions you dolt," he whispered furiously. "What I tried to teach you was Occlumency, but you never studied, never listened, looked into my pensieve and failed!"

[undesirableone]

Harry opened his mouth to say something else automatically, but Snape's stopped him from speaking.

He stared at the man in front of him. Harry realized that he managed to seem imposing even as he wore the uniform of the hospital instead of his dark cloak. Harry frowned, it was the right answer of course.

"Alright," he said. "You ask me something then," he said, crossing his arms. He had to think of this rationally, the question that Snape asked him, or if he even did at all, might tell Harry a bit more about if this was the real man or not.

[truthisntsimple]

"That's enough Potter," Severus hissed. The lack of surprise on the boy's face almost had him convinced. Almost. "I do not need to ask you or prove myself for anything!" Perhaps the boy's response to his next statement would tell him more about whether this was actually Lily's son.

Severus leaned in close. "But if I find, come this next academic year, that you have spread your father's" - he made the word sound almost like a curse - "unfortunate nickname for a certain Slytherin, I will personally turn you into potions ingredients."

[undesirableone]

Harry's eyes widened. "What?" he asked, thinking back. He felt defensive. Not only was Snape insulting him by insinuating that he would do such a thing, but he was bringing up what his father had done once again. Even if Harry had learned more about when his parents were school age (mostly thanks to Snape himself) that didn't take away the embarrassment and shock over seeing his father bully someone such a way.

For a second he seemed stunned by Snape's words, then his anger caught up with him. "I wouldn't do that," he said indignantly.